Eyeworld Daily News

30 | EYEWORLD DAILY NEWS | APRIL 22, 2022 ASCRS ANNUAL MEETING DAILY NEWS organized by David Palmer, MD, and Alan Robin, MD, is devoted to this problem of excessive drug waste. In a section on sustainability in the clinic, EyeSustain has partnered with My Green Doctor and its chief editor, Todd Sack, MD, to provide ophthalmol- ogy practices with a stepwise program to "go green" while saving water, energy, and money. Evan Chen, MD, a University of California San Francisco resident, has provided novel ideas such as creating a sustainability checklist. EyeSustain also seeks to collaborate with industry on ways to reduce our surgical carbon footprint. John Hovanesian, MD, heads a dedicated section within EyeSustain through which companies can report on and share their efforts to reduce carbon emissions and waste. A section on global sustainabili- ty programs and best practices is led by Sjoerd Elferink, MD. Within this section, Rengaraj Venkatesh, MD, has shared many of the innovative ideas that the Aravind Eye Care System has implemented to reduce their environ- mental impact. Finally, EyeSustain seeks to support advocacy and educa- tion about the public health impact of climate change and to collaborate with other medical specialties to decarbon- ize healthcare. A section dedicated to these broader issues is led by Barbara Erny, MD, who serves on the steer- ing committee of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, and Cassandra Thiel, PhD, a leading expert on the environmental impact of healthcare. Reference 1. Eckelman MJ, et al. Health care pollution and public health damage in the United States: an update. Health Aff (Millwood). 2020;39:2071– 2079. this disproportionately high environ- mental footprint, and the supply chain accounts for the largest percentage of carbon emissions from ophthalmic surgery. Rigid OR regulations that are not evidence-based may substantially and unnecessarily increase costs to the healthcare system and to eye patients. Goals and resources The primary mission of EyeSustain is to engage, network, and educate our global ophthalmic community about more sustainable practices. In recent years, there has been an increase in articles and studies on ophthalmology's carbon footprint. However, accessing this information is difficult because it is scattered among multiple sources. The EyeSustain website has several major sections with the largest being dedicated to sustainability in the OR. The Outpatient Ophthalmic Surgery Society (OOSS), led by President Cathleen McCabe, MD, and Executive Director Diane Blanck, has launched several initiatives for reducing surgical waste and will share its surveys along with steps that OOSS members are tak- ing to mitigate wasteful practices. The Ophthalmic Instrument Cleaning and Sterilization (OICS) task force, com- prised of representatives from ASCRS, the American Academy of Ophthalmol- ogy, the American Glaucoma Society, and OOSS, is also focused on reducing unnecessary surgical waste. Co-chaired by Dr. McCabe and David F. Chang, MD, the OICS task force's guidelines, studies, and position papers are also available here. Gitanjali Baveja, MD, Zasti chief medical officer, has provided a calculator tool that eye surgical facil- ities can use to measure and monitor their procedural carbon footprint over time. A huge financial and environ- mental cost is attributable to unused topical medication for cataract surgery. This includes partially used medication opened for individual patients, which they are not allowed to take home after surgery. A section of the website, by David F. Chang, MD, and Aakriti Garg Shukla, MD A mid growing interest and concern from ophthalmolo- gists about the environmen- tal impact of the healthcare sector, a new website to promote more sustainable ophthalmic care is being launched and introduced at the ASCRS Annual Meeting. EyeSustain is a newly established global coalition of ophthal- mologists and eye societies seeking to collaborate on making ophthalmic care and surgery more economically and environmentally sustainable. With seed funding from donations to an ASCRS Foundation EyeSustain fund, a com- mitted team of editorial and advisory board members has been designing this new website for the past 5 months. Timely information and resources for reducing surgical waste and oph- thalmology's carbon footprint will be gathered and available in one central location, www.eyesustain.org. The environmental impact of surgical waste Many are surprised to learn that healthcare accounts for nearly 5% of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and approximately 10% in the U.S. 1 In fact, the U.S. alone is responsible for about a quarter of the world's total global healthcare carbon footprint. ORs are the single largest contributor to EyeSustain website introduced and launched at ASCRS Annual Meeting To learn more about EyeSustain and efforts to make ophthalmic care more sustainable, attend an instruc- tion course featuring experts from the EyeSustain advisory board on April 24 from 8:00– 9:30 a.m. in Room 150B. An informal networking meeting for interested ophthalmologists will follow from 9:30–11:00 a.m. in Room 159AB.

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